Geographical Distribution of Fungal Plant Pathogens in Dust Across the United States

Kristin Dietzel,Noah Fierer,Jana M. U'Ren,Denis Valle,Albert Barberán

doi:10.3389/fevo.2019.00304

Abstract

As the world’s population grows, global food production will need to increase. While food production efficiency has increased in recent decades through pathogen control, climate change poses new challenges in crop protection against pathogens. Understanding the natural geographical distribution and dispersal likelihood of fungal plant pathogens is essential for forecasting disease plant spread. Here we used cultivation-independent techniques to identify fungal plant pathogens in 1,289 near-surface dust samples collected across the United States. We found that overall fungal pathogen community composition is more related to environmental conditions (in particular soil pH, precipitation and frost) than to agricultural hosts and practices. We also delimited five susceptibility geographical areas in the United States where different sets of pathogens tend to occur.

Highlights

As our global population continues to grow, the demand for food will increase with the concomitant needs to optimize crop yield and minimize crop loss to plant diseases (Gilland, 2002; Parry et al, 2004; Savary et al, 2019)
Using nearly 1,300 near-surface dust samples collected across the United States, we explored the geographical distribution of putative fungal plant pathogens detected by cultivationindependent methods and analyzed using a combination of machine learning tools
The most abundant species of fungal plant pathogens in dust were identified as Cladosporium sphaerospermum, Alternaria alternata, Aureobasidium pullulans, and Epicoccum nigrum (Figure 1C)

Summary

Introduction

As our global population continues to grow, the demand for food will increase with the concomitant needs to optimize crop yield and minimize crop loss to plant diseases (Gilland, 2002; Parry et al, 2004; Savary et al, 2019). It is estimated that yield losses to plant diseases represent ∼12% of total crop production worldwide (Reeleder, 2003). The prevalence and severity of outbreaks caused by virulent fungal plant pathogens have increased during the past two decades and are recognized as emergent threats to food security worldwide (Fisher et al, 2012; Santini et al, 2013). Modern agricultural expansion based on a limited genetic diversity of crops increases the risks of global disease spread (Brown and Hovmøller, 2002). It is of utmost importance to understand the geographical distribution of fungal plant pathogens

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Conclusion